TEFL in London

Hey Briona thank you so much for those links, that's awesome! I'm so lucky with family I'd have to be on the plane home now if I didn't. This finding work thing sucks!! But never know might find something with those links you gave me thanks heaps again! :) 

No, I found my student when I was doing my TEFL course, I'm just listing places I'll be looking for them when I come back! £6 is a very, very low wage, but even so you might find it works out as more money than the £10 you will get for a private student, as you will have trouble finding lots, especially at the beginning. This is why privates are higher paying per hour. You are very unlikely to land a job at a language school without a CELTA or equivalent I'm afraid. You probably are better off going the tourism route, although be advised that the job situation in Britain is pretty dire at the moment. I was in Lancaster in 2009 looking for ANY job with the best motivation (no food or money to buy it) and a degree in computing and couldn't find diddly squat. Anyways, I wish you luck! London isn't Lancaster. 

Hi again,

You're pretty lucky to have family in London as that will make surviving on a pittance a little easier. That said, you probably have more chance of finding well-paid work with your tourism degree. And what with the upcoming Olympic Games, there will be a lot more tourism jobs around, albeit short-term ones.

Although Visit Britain don't have any vacancies at the moment, you can use the relevant link to send them a non-specific application (http://www.visitbritain.org/aboutus/careers/index.aspx). Failing that, there are jobs with London 2012, although they are not specifically tourism-related. Have a look at http://www.london2012.com/get-involved/jobs/. For regular tourism jobs, have a look at http://www.londonjobs.co.uk/jobs/travelandtourism. You can also try Guardian Jobs (http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/) and the job site for whatever your local paper is, e.g., Evening Standard.

To see how much you'd take home after deductions, have a look at http://listentotaxman.com/. Use the drop-down to change the tax year to 2012/13 for salaries after 6 April 2012. Prior to that 2011/12 rates apply. 

Hope that helps.

Briona

Hi Briona

There's a lot of handy information there! Thanks for the info about the different certificates. I did do a bit of research before just jumping in the deep end. I'm lucky enough to have family on the outskirts of London to ease me into the costs of city living. My plan was to find employment, in anything really (preferably tourism management - as that's what my degree is) and supplement my income by teaching english. A full time teaching job would be bonus if I could find work. I knew it was going be difficult given the current economic climate but definately not this hard! I'm definately considering other places in Europe to teach, I applied for a few in France and Spain is high up on my list as well! I definately want to try and explore London first and gain experience teaching so I'll keep applying, I might get lucky! Then may have to try some where with a warmer climate to defrost lol. Thanks for all your info though, it's definately tough out there in the UK at the moment.

Amy     

Hi Amy,

The CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) is a 120hr TEFL course usually taken face-to-face intensively over four or five weeks. Together with the Trinity CertTESOL, it is the 'gold standard' of TEFL courses and is recognised and accepted worldwide. The big different between it and online TEFL certificates is that it includes six hours of observed teaching practice where trainees teach real students rather than their fellow trainees. Therefore if a school requests a "CELTA or equivalent", they will ONLY accept a CELTA, Trinity CertTESOL or American SIT TESOL.

But even without the issue of qualifications, actually finding a job is challenging as the ESOL market in the UK is in pretty bad shape. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, the Government has made it much more difficult for foreign students to study in the UK hence a number of language schools have closed down; secondly, the Government has made massive cutbacks in funding for education and the first thing to take the hit has been the ESOL courses.

And if you do find a job, there's yet more bad news. Be advised that employers advertising jobs for £6.08ph are only offering the national minimum wage (NMW) and that on a standard 20-25hr week contract you will not earn anywhere near enough to live in London. That will barely cover your rent never mind pay for bills, transport and food. Don't believe me? A 25hr week on minimum wage, after deductions for tax and NI, will see you taking home just £644 (£655 from April) - trust me when I say that you couldn't possibly live on that in London.

I'm sorry if this all seems a bit "doom and gloom" but it's important to be aware of what you're getting yourself into. As you have a British passport, have you considered working in mainland Europe, if only to get some experience and earn a living wage?

Briona

Hey thanks for the quick reply! I have a British passport and almost finished the 120 hour online TEFL course with i to i. What is the CELTA? I've seen that as a requirement in a lot of the job ads? I'm guessing a certain type of qualification, do you think the 120 hour course is equivalent (includes the TEFL certificate, grammar awareness course and four specialist courses)? £10! Most of the jobs I've applied for only pay £6 so I'm happy with £10!! I don't have a flat yet, was going to try and a get a place where I get a job. Did you find your one to one student through putting up flyers? Thanks so much for the info :)   

Hey! Do you have a valid work visa? If you do and a CELTA/CertTESOL you might be able to get something in a language school, there are a lot in England (espeically if you are still going to be around in the summer). If you only have the former, you could go around and offer your English teaching services to businesses/put up adverts in the local shops etc. It depends on your experience, but I used to charge £10 /hour in my hometown (which is not London, but has a similar cost of living), but this was because I wanted to undercut the market rate (you could also offer to teach small groups at a lower price). Do you have somewhere people could go and study or would you go to theirs? If you are going to their house, you might want to also factor in transport. Anyways, good luck! I loved having a one-to-one student when I was back home, but I'm not sure I'd want to try and pay the rent with it.